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California surpasses France as world's 6th largest economy
- ndj7 10y agoImagine the response were some terrible person to edit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi...
- Thaxll 10y agoThe article is rather light on proofs and numbers.
- HoppedUpMenace 10y agoCalifornia was the 5th largest economy at one point in the 90's and early 2000's.
- DorintheFlora 10y agoFifth largest, sixth largest, eighth largest -- it kind of does not matter. A single US state has a larger economy than the vast majority of nations. It's pretty impressive, but it isn't really news. This has been true for a long time. I have seen it said that "California is the American dream squared" or something like that.
- frozenport 10y agoIt's code for California is doing well, there was a time under Gray Davis when it was falling down the rankings.
- DorintheFlora 10y agoStill, it seems thin for HN. Even given that many people here live in California and HN is headquartered in California, it doesn't seem like something interesting, discussion worthy and meriting hitting the front page. I mean, I like this little tidbit about California and have for years. But this isn't particularly substantive.
- frozenport 10y agoYeah, its definitely Buzzfeed click bait, but there are other interesting indicators of California's growth. For example, California surpassed a number of states in average GDP per capita in the last few years. For example, in 2009 Illinois was ahead of California.
- DorintheFlora 10y agoAnd, yet, here we are, discussing the clickbait -- me included. (I mean, instead of something meatier.)
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- monk_e_boy 10y agoPopulations: France 66M California 38M
- chimeracoder 10y ago> A single US state has a larger economy than the vast majority of nations. It's pretty impressive, but it isn't really news. California's economy is impressive, but this comparison doesn't really show that. California has a larger population than all but ~15% of the world's nations[0]. Having a GDP larger than 50% of them isn't surprising. At least 20 US states have a GDP per-capita greater than almost any other country in the world, except for a couple of incredibly tiny countries like Liechtenstein[1], and some countries with massive oil reserves (Qatar, Norway, UAE, etc.). On a per-capita basis, California ranks higher than Switzerland, only tenth in the US. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_%28United_Nations%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_populatio... [1] 'per capita' is much less meaningful as a metric when there are several orders of magnitude difference between the denominators, and Liechtenstein has the population of what would be considered a medium-sized town in other countries.
- jessriedel 10y ago> Having a GDP larger than 50% of them isn't surprising. Huh? Being the 6th largest economy means it has a GDP larger than 97% of them. Or larger than 75% of the 15% with population larger than it.
- amelius 10y agoWhere is Europe's Silicon Valley?
- jacquesm 10y agoFrance has a lot of things that Silicon Valley will likely never have, no matter what the size of its economy, not everything can be measured in money. Europe doesn't have a Silicon Valley because every nation would want it to be in their backyard. But even if the concentration isn't there and the number of exits > $1B isn't as large (or the number of $1B and up companies isn't as large) we have plenty of solid performers.
- Cyph0n 10y agoStockholm and Zurich would be my two contenders for a European SV.
- rm_-rf_slash 10y agoThere is only one Silicon Valley: the one in California. Nowhere else in the United States - or the world - has quite the unique mix of red-blooded capitalism, concentrated wealth, and a culture of innovation. "Silicon Alley" (New York), "silicon roundabout" (London), and so on are simply natural, technologically focused extensions of the existing economies in those areas. If you want to create a Silicon Valley in Europe, it will take decades until it can compare to Northern California.
- ThePadawan 10y ago> Nowhere else in the United States - or the world - has quite the unique mix of red-blooded capitalism, concentrated wealth, and a culture of innovation. Now that you put it into a sentence, I find it less surprising that Switzerland is starting to brand itself as "Europe's Silicon Valley".
- jacquesm 10y agoUntil the 2014 referendum that might have happened but as it is it's off the table.
- tehabe 10y agoActually it shows how unequal the US states are in terms of economic power, the average US state is on number 31, California on number 5. Which begs the question, which is the worst doing state in the Union? (Answer: it is Vermont)
- mikeash 10y agoAll it shows is how unequal the US states are in terms of population. California has the biggest economy simply because it has the most people.
- jdavis703 10y agoNot exactly true. Even if Texas (the no. 2 U.S. state by population) had the same population as California it would still have a smaller economy.
- mikeash 10y agoSure, but the difference is much smaller. The state with the highest GDP per capita beats the state with the lowest by a factor of about 2, whereas the difference in population between biggest and smallest is about a factor of 66. Texas versus California is a particularly bad example of this, with Texas's GDP per capita less than 1% lower.
- bluthru 10y agoPer capita: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_GDP_per_capita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_GDP_per...
- tehabe 10y agoThat is true, I didn't look for per capita but the absolute number. Also, if you take per capita, California isn't the biggest economy in the US, it's Delaware or if it were a state: Washington, DC.
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- bluthru 10y agoAre the middle eastern migrants an economic liability for France? Wasn't Europe sold on the notion that a population influx would help the economy?
- collyw 10y agoMany people aren't sold on that notion. I can't see how bring people from vastly different cultural backgrounds, many of whom won't speak the language are going to benefit the economy.
- gooserock 10y agoAre you familiar with a country called the United States? I hear they've done pretty well with immigrants from vastly different cultural backgrounds, many of whom don't speak the language.
- DorintheFlora 10y agoYeah, they even have a state called California which gets quite a few people from Mexico coming in across the border. Many of them speak little or no English. I hear it is doing okay.
- collyw 10y agoYou will be getting a wall soon enough.
- DorintheFlora 10y agoIf we do too good of a job of keeping out Mexicans, we will have serious food shortages. There will also be other areas that suffer -- like upscale landscaping that seems to be mostly maintained by Mexican workers -- but the whole food shortage thing worries me lots more. So, I hope we don't get too clever about it.
- akbar501 10y ago
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- labrador 10y agoBetter wines too [1] but that doesn't concern me. I was born in California and have decided that if Republicans end up destroying the Federal government, then I'd be fine with California, Oregon and Washington forming a new country called Cascadia. By the way, Cascadia would have the 2 or 3rd most powerful military in the world. [1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5013910.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5013910.stm